Twin Towers
Introduction The original World Trade Center, or the Twin Towers, was a large complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. It featured landmark twin towers, which opened on April 4, 1973. The Towers were a symbol to America, just like the eagle, or the Liberty Bell. They stood 109 stories tall, which were two main towers. The other towers were smaller little office buildings. Ground Breaking It all started at the Radio Row. It was a row of electronic stores that existed from 1921, to 1966. The Radio Row was a warehouse district on the Lower West Side in the Financial District. The idea of establishing a World Trade Center in New York City was first proposed in 1943. The New York State Legislature passed a bill authorizing New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to begin developing plans for the project but the plans were put on hold in 1949. Growth was focused in mid town at the time, which is most likely the reason. To help stimulate urban renewal in Lower Manhattan, David Rockefeller suggested that the Port Authority build a World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Plans for the use of eminent domain to remove the shops in Radio Row bounded by Vesey, Church, Liberty, and West Streets began in 1961 when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was deciding to build the world's first world trade center. They had two choices; the east side of Lower Manhattan, or the west side. The Official Ground breaking started in 1966. Construction and Opening The site of the World Trade Centre was located on landfill with the bedrock located 65 feet below. To construct the World Trade Centre, it was necessary to build a "bathtub" also with a slurry wall around the West Street side of the site, to keep water from the Hudson River out. The Ground breaking was finished by 1967. They speculated that the building would be finished by 1970, but they didn't know when for sure, as they never build a project quite that big. But everything went well, construction was extremely focused on during the 1970 and 71, causing the building to be finished by 1972. The buildings were a bit bland and plain with what looked like two grey sticks, but they worked with it and spiced it up the few years that followed. The building finally in late 1972 was topped off and finished. By April 4th, 1973, the building was opened to the public. A few other buildings came along afterwards too. One was the 22 floor hotel, which opened in 1980 as the Vista Hotel, and in 1995 became the Marriott. Three other low rise buildings in the same hollow tube design as the towers also stood around the plaza. 6 World Trade Centre, at the northwest corner, housed the United States Customs Service and the U.S. Commodities Exchange. 5 World Trade Centre was located at the northeast corner above the PATH station and 4 World Trade Centre was at the southeast corner. In 1987, a 47-floor office building called 7 World Trade Centre was built north of the towers, in a block next to it. First Event Acrobatic performer Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a tightrope in 1974. Petit walked between the towers several times on a steel cable that was laid out using a bow and arrow. The 1975 Fire. On February 13, 1975, a three-alarm fire broke out on the 11th floor of the North Tower. The Fire was extinguished just a few hours after the incident's debut. Most of the damage was on the 11th floor. 1993 Bombing The first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center occurred on February 26, 1993, at 12:17 p.m. A Ryder truck filled with 2,000 pounds of explosives, detonated in the underground garage of the North Tower. The blast opened a hole through five sub levels. Over 1,000 people were Injured during the attack. 2001,The Fall Of The Towers (9/11) On September 11th, 2001, Two planes were hijacked and flown into the two towers. The first one, a United Airlines Flight 175 appeared at 8:46 in the morning, and hits the south side of the north tower. A big explosive can be seen and quickly turned into black smoke, coming out of a "gaping hole." It struck between the 77th-85th floors, causing damage and instant deaths. At first most people thought that the plane was an accident, but that was proven false, as at 9:03 AM, another plane was flown into the south tower, between the 40th-60th floors. With both towers burning, a third plane hit the pentagon, and a fourth one was planned to hit the Capitol or the White house, but was double hijacked and fell in a field in Pennsylvania. After 56 minutes of burning, the south tower collapsed. It was the last to get hit, but was flown into the tower in a position that couldn't keep the tower standing any longer. The North tower also collapses at 10:28 AM. The pentagon was extinguished, but still left a whole in the side of the building. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th towers were all damaged during the collapse of the main two. The 7th tower, although, collapsed at another time. It was discovered to have small fires on different parts of the building. The building also might of collapsed due to vibration from the towers collapsed. The 7th tower ends up collapsing in a very strange way at 5:21 PM, burning for hours.